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'Gazetteer of Arabia Vol. I' [‎356] (375/1050)

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The record is made up of 1 volume (523 folios). It was created in 1917. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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^ BAHRAIN
the produce is poor. The citrons of Bahrain are, it is true, the best in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
and there is a kind of smaU and luscious banana; but the date palms are here of a dull
green and have a poor and stunted appearance, while the other fruits, whether almonds,
apricots, fags, grapes, limes, melons, peaches or pomegranates, fall below mediocrity.
There are some tamarinds, and the mango and mulberry are seen, but are rare. The soil
is perhaps not sterile, although, without cultivation, it does not ordinarily produce even
grass ; deficiency of rainfall is probably the chief reason, for in exceptionally wet years
grass is said to grow knee-deep all over the central depression of the main island to the
edge of the Mimlahat-al-Mattalah. All cultivated land is irrigated from springs or wells.
The springs arc many and copious, but the low level at which many of them lie makes it
necessary to conduct the water to the plantations in very deep cuttings, which in places
are lined with stone and in others are carried through outcrops of rock. Irrigation is of
J kinds, and date plantations are distinguished as Nakhl-as-Saih, Dulab and Nakhl-al-
Gharrafah; of these the first kind is watered by gravitation from fiowing channels, the
®® co f 1 d . b , y . a llft ° or 2 akms raised by bullocks or donkeys walking down a slope, and
the third by a Gharrafah or lever and skin with a counterpoise.* Fish-manure is used
to fertilise the date groves. Agncultral produce is brought to market daily in the
Manama,h iazar and weekly at the Suq-al-Khamis fair (on Thursdays) and at a place
near Qal'at-al-'Ajaj (on Mondays). F
. most valuable of the domestic animals are donkeys of a particular breed, from 12
to 13-1 hands in height; they are generally white but a few incline to greyness, probably
on account of impure breeding. The stock was originally imported from Hasa and is
perhaps the finest kind of donkey in the world. The females, being less noisy than the
males, are sold at higher prices, and a good one sometimes fetches as much ai Rs. 500: the
stallions are all sold to professional donkey boys, who hire them out in the towns for
ndmg or carrying loads Only about 200 of these donkeys, it is said, now exist upon
the islands, but the number of donkeys of all sorts, according to the statistics obtainable,
is nearly 2 000 The ordinary donkeys, about 1,800 in number, are of all colours—white,
grey, black and brown-and vary in height from 12 to 10 hands and less ; they are useful
and capable of hard work. The provender of donkeys is chiefly lucerne, dates and grass.
Horses are only kept by the family of the ruling Shaikh ; thiy are generally of pure Najdi
blood, but have somewhat deteriorated through being bred in an unsuitable climate.
No horses are bred for exportation: those owned are about 50 in number. AbouflOO
camels are owned by the Shaikh and his family and perhaps 50 others belong to faivata
TWi n h ff? i ®\ wh ° em P lo y tlle m in carrying water to Manamah for sale.
There is a small but fine local breed of cattle, famous even on the Persian coast for their
milking qualities: the beef of Bahrain however, which sells locally at about 6 annas per lb.,
^rrr sorts in the islands are reported to amount toabout
850 head ; they are stall-fed upon dates, lucerne, bhoosa, dried fish and old bones and are
sometimes unaWe'to walk on aecount of their over-grown hoofs. Sheep and goats are
few and are hardly owned outside the principal island, there being no grazing elsewhere
U ^ m Na asan; ^ is estimated that there are in all about 500 sheep
I a ^ ng t u 0 eadingmembersoftheAl Khallfah or ruling
family, 400 to the larger Arab tribes, and 200 (stall-fed) to individual townsmen of
Manamah and Muharraq. Mutton and goats' flesh, mostly imported, sells locally at
7 to 8 annas per lb. accordmg to quality.
sx"="Kr- ^ ^""" ^ ^ •»» — d rr
.Zt^Tlr 6sh r e3 are productive and afford a livelihood to a considerable pro
portion of the coast population. The flsh are taken both with nets and in tidal weirs
or enclosures called Hadhras, made of reeds, some of which surround large ^reas
^ Communications and namgation.—The Bahrain islands are traversable in' most
ndm ? ai ; d P ack animals: in irrigated tracts the water channek, which
T , otherwise seriously impede movement, are generally sufficiently well bridged
The most important route m the islands is that from Manamah to the two Eifa's • wav'
farers travelling by it either ford the Maqta'-at-Tubli creek or go round the head of it
I mile further west, according to the state of the tide. round tne Head ol it,
*The Gharrafah is handled by one man rri - ~ •

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Content

Volume I of III of the Gazetteer of Arabia. The Gazetteer is alphabetically-arranged and this volume contains entries A through to J.

The Gazetteer is an alphabetically-arranged compendium of the tribes, clans and geographical features (including towns, villages, lakes, mountains and wells) of Arabia that is contained within three seperate bound volumes. The entries range from short descriptions of one or two sentences to longer entries of several pages for places such as Iraq and Yemen.

A brief introduction states that the gazetteer was originally intended to deal with the whole of Arabia, "south of a line drawn from the head of the Gulf of 'Aqabah, through Ma'an, to Abu Kamal on the Euphrates, and to include Baghdad and Basrah Wilayats" and notes that before the gazetteer could be completed its publication was postponed and that therefore the three volumes that now form this file simply contain "as much of the MSS. [manuscript] as was ready at the time". It further notes that the contents have not been checked.

Extent and format
1 volume (523 folios)
Physical characteristics

Foliation: This volume's foliation system is circled in pencil, in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. of each folio.

Written in
English in Latin script
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'Gazetteer of Arabia Vol. I' [‎356] (375/1050), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/MIL/17/16/2/1, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100023909212.0x0000b0> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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